Holding your peak for a long season

The contest season is dawning and dreams of the next level are engrained in the minds of competitors around the world.  Okay, so I kind of stole that line from a Christmas cartoon and traded kids for bodybuilders and toys for trophies, but what could be more fun than winning a show?  Like a kid on Christmas morning…oh, never mind.  But speaking of winning, will it be a first-time trophy, a class win, an overall, or even a pro card?  I know pro clients who will be very unhappy with anything less than a WNBF title this year.  One thing very common among those gunning for big wins is a big plan.  Structuring the season to encompass qualifying shows leading up to Worlds or scheduling a string of competitions due to geography, time of year, or the pursuit of pro status, many have already developed a plan resembling flag pins on a wall map.  Most competitors don’t compete just once a year and are faced with questions of how to hold that peak or even improve contest to contest. 

            I maintain that most will be well served to compete multiple times as they will have a chance to improve – if they manage that process correctly.  However, I hear the occasional naysayer tell a friend, “Don’t peak too early – you’re going to lose muscle.”  What does this say to the person who has to worry about “peaking too early” for that show if they plan to compete in even more through the ensuing weeks or months?  It would appear we’re all doomed to look horrible after the first show if we took this advice.  Fortunately, there is no such thing as peaking too early; just too little information regarding how nail the winning look over and over.  You can indeed launch yourself into constant progress and be your best every time you need to be.

            First you must decide if you want to be your absolute best on day one or if you want to plan a gradual improvement.  Some will be looking at qualifying processes where they simply don’t want or need to be their best in the early shows.  On the contrary, others don’t want to step on any stage where they haven’t put themselves in a position to win.  I certainly agree with that thought process and I’m going to show you how you can make it a reality – all year long.

            We have to start with a concept that works its way into many articles I write: be ready early.  If you miss-time a diet and wish you had an extra couple of weeks in the level of competition we all face today – game over.  You may as well leave your sweats on and go back home.  If you are ready early, you have time to fine-tune and even start building your food intake back up so that you enter the peaking process fuller, more acclimated to processing carbs – which will give you less chance of spill over, and with an increasing instead of dwindling metabolism. 

            I’ve written enough complete articles on that topic to not delve too deeply into explanation, but this is the process you have to buy into completely to have a chance of looking better and better as the contest season grinds on.  Precise, incremental changes in your diet can reinvigorate your metabolism and bring more food into your body without the creation of body fat.  It can be a fine line to walk, but I see it every week with clients coming into or out of contest season.  Note the difference in how you can come out of a contest just as an example…have you ever gained 20 or 30 pounds within weeks of a contest only to feel horrible both physically and mentally?  Do you know anyone who successfully increased food slowly so they effectively chase their metabolism up without a body fat rebound?  I sure have and it’s quite a difference.  Imagine being at full off-season levels of food and your body fat level being near contest shape.  I don’t see it as often as I’d like, but when I do, I can predict good outcomes for that person.  Over and over this has been proven the best strategy by competitors gaining strength, fullness, and size through higher caloric levels and therefore raising their met rate at the same time.

            Move that mindset now to competing in multiple shows.  Is it possible to be at your best-ever condition for your first show and still look even better later in the year?  A couple of years ago I wrote an article for Natural Bodybuilding & Fitness titled The Nutrition Strategy of a World Champion (Nancy Hanna) detailing how she went from pro-card winner one year to WNBF World Champion the next year with a long string of contests.  Let me review some of the high points with an illustration of a client from last year.  Similarly, this seasoned competitor started preparing for his first show with me a full seven or eight months before he was on stage.  He won his WNBF pro card in the Spring and immediately started working for his pro debut several months later.  Would he lose muscle?  Would he be too thin and stringy?  No, actually…he won his very tough class in his first pro show.  Worlds was next; could he hold it together for another two months?  More muscle loss?  Nope.  He looked even better.  When my staff and I saw him the night before the show we were all speechless – the level of vascularity and the thin-skin look was simply freaky and his weight was actually higher than we even anticipated. 

            Sorry to drag you this far into an article without a magical how-to list or secret formula.  But I do live by a town literally named Santa Clause, Indiana – look it up – and maybe his elves can help you if you’re a good boy, but it can be way easier than that.  The key is pure incrementalism.  Many diet coaches don’t want to admit that when dieting for awhile your metabolism does decrease – that’s bad for business – but it does.  Fat cells are primed to convert glucose to fat.  Your body is very sensitive to insulin.  Biologically you are set up for fat storage and if you think cheat meals or days off or weeks off are easy to recover from, you’re dead wrong.  I just received an email from a reader who said he was in the best shape of his life at the end of the contest season, took one week “off” from the diet, and now he looks like he did two months ago.  He exclaimed, “There’s no way one week can undo two months of dieting!”  Wanna bet?

            Consider again the state you’re in after dieting.  What if you slowly start increasing food; slow enough to not gain body fat?  Your metabolism starts recovering…you need even more food.  Increase again and guess what?  Your metabolism moves up another notch.  Slowly you can take yourself to virtual off-season levels of food but your body fat is unchanged.  The higher carbohydrate/calorie levels make training energy better, strength goes up, and you start seeing fullness and size improve.  Faster metabolism AND better strength and size…while in contest shape?  Yep.  People who say it can’t be done are those who hide behind purposeful binge-eating as a rationalization for, “Ya can’t stay that lean all the time – you’ll lose muscle!  Pass me another piece of that cheesecake….”

            Are you going to compete more than once this year?  Don’t let your hard work and discipline end on the night of the first contest.  That’s just round one.  You can win round two and three being even better.  It takes planning, it takes the ability to read your own body, and it takes execution.  But isn’t a win worth that?